In 1967, the Blasphemy Act 1697 was formally repealed in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland by section 13 of the Criminal Law Act 1967. This legislative change did not make blasphemy legally "permitted" as a protected right, but rather abolished the specific statutory offense, leaving only the common law offense of blasphemous libel which was later abolished in England and Wales in 2008 and Scotland in 2024.
During this period, the legal landscape regarding blasphemy was characterized by:
Statutory Abolition: The Blasphemy Act 1697, which had mandated death for first-time offenders who denied the Trinity, was declared obsolete by the Law Commission and repealed.
Common Law Persistence: Despite the statutory repeal, the common law offense of blasphemous libel remained enforceable. This was demonstrated by the landmark 1977 case Whitehouse v Lemon, where the law was successfully used to prosecute the publisher of Gay News.
· Some American states retained blasphemy statutes on the books, the U.S. Supreme Court had already begun ruling them unconstitutional, notably in 1952. It heard the case of Joseph Burstyn v. Wilson where New York state rescinded the license for the film “The Miracle” as it was deemed sacrilegious for mocking the Catholic faith. The ruling established that the government cannot suppress religious criticism as a violation of free speech. The high court ruled that states could not ban sacrilegious films. That would be a violation of the separation of church and state, it ruled, and an unconstitutional restriction on freedom of religion and speech. Even after the Supreme Court decision, Americans continued to occasionally face blasphemy charges, but courts shot the charges down.
Judicial Status: By 1967, the offense was already considered a "dead letter" by senior judges like Lord Denning, but it remained technically valid under common law until its eventual abolition decades later.
From the late 1960’s to the present, blasphemy is riddled throughout films with Lionsgate having the lion’s share of violations to the 2nd Commandment and Exodus 20:7. This curse against God is a thread woven throughout media to be cinched so as to strangle the connection between humanity and its Creator, as if that were possible.